ntpdate is no longer necessary because ntpd includes all functions necessary to set the clock.
Use of ntpdate in crontab is a very bad idea because a great number of users can make a burst of activity and a saturation of servers. ntpd is more accurate with few requests and can also setup the clock. ntpd makes requests after a long time. More the clock is adjusted, more it waits before a new request. In man ntpdate, we can see: Disclaimer: The functionality of this program is now available in the ntpd program. See the -q command line option in the ntpd - Network Time Protocol (NTP) daemon page. After a suitable period of mourning, the ntpdate program is to be retired from this distribution. ntpdate and ntp are active in drakxservices... IMO, this is a nonsense. -- Pierre Jarillon - http://pjarillon.free.fr/ Vice-président de l'ABUL : http://abul.org Microsoft is for computers what McDonald is for French gastronomy